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IFAW said it believed the killings
were not reported for several days amid a dispute between local people
and the government about the presence of wild elephants in the area.

Last year's killing spree: Armed gangs rode on horseback from Chad and Sudan to Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park before shooting the animals, around half of the huge park's population

High demand: Mass poaching incidents were particularly common during the region's dry season when heavily-armed groups of poachers used military-issue automatic and semi-automatic weapons to launch coordinated attacks on herds

The organisation’s Jason Bell said the incident showed some regions of Africa faced losing their entire elephant population.

He added: ‘The poaching of elephants
for their ivory is an issue of global significance, and needs a global
response if we are to turn the killing fields of central Africa into
safe havens for elephants.

Illegal trade: Selling and exporting ivory is banned in an attempt to protect elephants but remains in high demand especially in China and Japan

‘This cannot happen in a vacuum.
Ivory-consuming nations – notably China – have to make a concerted
effort to reduce the demand for ivory in their own back yards.

Otherwise, the battle to save elephants will be lost.’

Last week’s slaughter in Chad comes a year after poachers killed around 630 elephants in neighbouring Cameroon.

Armed gangs rode on horseback from
Chad and Sudan to the country’s Bouba Ndjida National Park before
shooting the animals – around half of the reserve’s population.

IFAW said incidents of mass slaughter
were common during the region’s dry season, when heavily armed groups of
poachers used military-issue automatic and semi-automatic weapons to
launch co-ordinated attacks on herds.

Exporting and selling ivory are banned
under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, in
an attempt to protect elephants from slaughter.

But demand for tusks remains high in
some parts of the world, including China and Japan, where they are used
for carvings and ornaments.

The demand has made the trade
lucrative for criminal gangs, which target elephants in Africa and Asia
before smuggling the ivory on to the international black market.

The United Nations reported last week
that around 17,000 elephants had been poached worldwide during 2011.

It
also said the global illegal trade in ivory had more than doubled since
2007.

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Ivory poachers slaughter herds of elephants in Chad including 33 pregnant females in the worst mass killing spree this year